differ from any other topographic feature on earth because of “their
ability to maintain themselves as a unit as they roll across a flooding
coastal plain in response to a rise in sea level.”
When this natural phenomenon meets global warming and the
devastating effects of nonstop coastal development, rapid erosion is the
result. “There’s a natural process called littoral drift,” explains Willner
as he provides a pickup-based tour of Sandy Hook’s windswept
charms. “Sand from ancient granite mountains like the Appalachians
was carried down by glacial action to create the beaches. Once here, it
moves north in a predictable, inexorable fashion, reshaping the coast
as it goes. What you see today is the result of millions of years of geo-
logical evolution, but people expect that process to stop when human
infrastructure is introduced. They’re putting homes and beach clubs
on mobile land. And they’re taking a crapshoot that those natural
processes won’t happen in their lifetimes. When it does, they’re always
surprised.”
The speed with which the ocean reclaims its own is exacerbated by
rising tides. According to Norbert Psuty, a coastal geomorphologist
with the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences at Rutgers
University, deeper in-shore waters means more powerful waves, which
move more quickly and retain more energy. In the last 100 years, the
New Jersey coast has sunk 16 inches, through a combination of tec-
tonic plate depression and sea-level rise. “Almost everything we have
along the coast is at risk sooner or later,” says Psuty. “We’ve been for-
tunate not to have taken any direct hits lately.” Stephen Leatherman,
who directs the Hurricane Center at Florida International University,
puts it another way: “The erosion rates are going to accelerate in the
future, which means the cost is going to go up exponentially to main-
tain these beaches. And no one seems to have figured it out yet. It’s like
a great big secret.”
SUBSIDIZEDPRIVACY
There are no easy answers on the Jersey shore. According to the
Philadelphia Inquirer, property that was worth $8.7 billion in 1962 is
now worth $34.3 billion when adjusted for inflation. In 1945, George
Greater New York 49